


A Fresh Start

by catsinthetardis



Series: Always-an-Augment-Kirk [2]
Category: Into Darkness, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Augment Kirk, Gen, george kirk was an augment
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-10-06
Packaged: 2018-03-13 10:08:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3377549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catsinthetardis/pseuds/catsinthetardis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Khan recovered his crew and one Captain Kirk, but George Kirk was an augment, so how would that change their dynamic?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rude Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> So I finally decided to write a sequel. I don't know when I'll update next, hopefully before February ends! Thanks for your patience.

_Metal housings screeching, the pneumatic hiss of a rubber seal, an increasingly blurry image of Spock’s teary face, a hand_ his hand _slipping down a glass pane, along with an echoing voice taunting Spock that kept appearing and retreating in a haze of fog that seemed to surround his mind._

Jim woke up. That in and of itself was a surprise, as he had planned to sacrifice himself to save his crew. Had that not worked? Well if the Enterprise had crashed he wouldn’t be waking up anyway, so _something must have happened._

_“His cells regenerate at a pace I’ve never seen before.”_

But fast enough to fix radiation poisoning? A whirlwind of thoughts spiraled through his head. Kirk wouldn’t have believed it possible, but after being betrayed by _Starfleet_ , his family that he had carved out for himself, worked through his own issues for, he would believe anything.

He tried to sit up, but evidently even superman blood had limitations. However, he was able to turn his head and look at his surroundings. It was most definitely not his _Enterprise_ ’s familiar medbay or a Starfleet hospital, but the sleek lines and dark coloring reminded him of the efficiency and drama of the _Vengeance_. The thought clicked as Kirk slipped back into darkness.

_“Oh, please no.”_

*********************

Sitting at the helm of the _Vengeance_ , Khan didn’t even bother hiding his smile. He had succeeded in retrieving his last crewmember, as well as reviving the family he’d thought lost. The bridge was alive with augments adapting to life again, mostly recovered after two weeks. Fortunately, none of Marcus’ flunkies had bothered to mess with the life support systems, so all of his remaining crewmembers had been successfully thawed.

Starfleet would be unable to launch any sort of pursuit following his escape and the subsequent collapse of any sort of government stability.

He had told his crew of the situation personally, after ensuring that the Vengeance was safely out of Federation space. Their cries for blood and revenge had been no surprise, as well as the grief about having lost Otto. There was also a general sense of awe that his family seemed to possess, and Khan supposed that it was an acceptable response to waking up 300 years in the future.

The situation with Kirk had also been revealed, and most of his crew were amused with what they’d dubbed his “antics,” as if he were a mischievous puppy. Khan had laughed genuinely for the first time in his recent memory after overhearing that description, and it had stuck. Oh, his crew _did_ respect the man, especially after hearing the circumstances of his life and his accomplishments, but the truth stood that he was decades younger than any of them, centuries if one counted time in the cryotubes. Most were happy that Otto had been able to have a family, the brevity of which had been unfortunate. Everyone had gotten a sad chuckle out of his middle name. _Tiberius_ , for the scientist that had tried to give them a childhood. No one blamed Kirk for any of their misfortune, as he had been as betrayed by Starfleet as they, even moreso, for all his faith in the organization that had turned on him. His loyalty to crew and willingness to protect people he had never met before had endeared Kirk to the entire crew, reminding them of his father quite strongly.

All the crew devoured any and all information about this new time, and were working their way through the Starfleet library at an alarming pace. Alien species were a special point of interest, and there was much excitement about the prospect of encountering species that were further evolved than humans. Khan had spoken about his limited experiences. Marcus had been a xenophobic bigot who kept “inferior species” away from his prize, but Khan’s crew had been intrigued at his description of Vulcans, and amused at his outmaneuvering of “Mr. Spock.”

A small flashing light drew Khan’s attention to the feed from medbay. He watched as Kirk tried to sit up and fail. His movements were slight and unsure, but Khan watched in fascination as Kirk worked out where he was even as he lapsed back into unconsciousness. Even Khan had been unsure of the results injecting his blood into Kirk would have. The radiation poisoning had been extensive, and it was a testament to Kirk’s will to live that he had woken up at all, much less a scarce two weeks past the event.

Khan motioned to Joaquin to take control as he stood, stretching out of habit from playing regular human. When Mara glanced over questioningly, he smirked and answered her unasked question.

“Our little pup just woke in the medbay.”

The bridge crew laughed at the nickname, and Julian turned to Khan from an instruction manual.

“If he’s as stubborn as his father, good luck convincing him of your good intentions.”

Making a face, Khan turned and walked off the bridge. Cati almost ran into him just past the first turn and thumped him on the chest with her padd with a grin, guessing where he was going.

“You could have saved me the trip to tell you he was up by admitting you were monitoring him.”

“And let you sit bored in medbay? No, now at least I’ll have company to walk down with.”

Cati waved to Ling and Sarai as they passed the gym. The crew had been building up to their standards of fitness slowly as they recovered from 300 years of cryosleep. As they reached the medical bay, Cati turned to her office and Khan continued to the small room Kirk was recuperating in. He sat down, preparing to wait until the next time Kirk awakened.

47 minutes passed before a monitor alerted Khan to Kirk’s elevated heart rate, and he lifted his head from light meditation as Kirk’s eyelids fluttered open.

*************************

“Hello, Captain Kirk.”


	2. Chapter 2

_One day after events of Into Darkness_

As the starship _Enterprise_ limped back towards Earth, its First Officer and Chief Medical Officer found themselves in a very sorry state. There was not a dry eye among the bridge crew, and even Spock looked confounded as to how Khan had evaded capture.

************ 

Spock was taking the loss of the Captain harshly. He could not accept that he had failed his _friend_ , especially with the forewarning that his alternate self had provided. But even the loss of the Captain did not prevent the _Enterprise_ from needing repairs, and the crew was at the verge of breaking into unsalvageable pieces. Khan did not even have the decency to return Kirk’s body, although Spock was still puzzling why he would go to the trouble to taunt him to the extreme of leaving an empty cryotube. The last remark about his crew was also worrying, as Khan did not seem the type to make mistakes in wording that severe. 

However, nothing could be accomplished from going after Khan now except more death. The welfare of his ship and crew would be the first priority of Captain Kirk, and Spock could do no less.

************ 

Leonard McCoy was dying in increments. His best friend had been kidnapped by a megalomaniac, and was probably being tortured by him. Why else would Khan have gone out of his way to save Kirk, only to take him away? McCoy hadn’t told anyone that Khan had sent the blood, and so far Carol hadn’t told anyone either. They both hoped to keep the secret of Jim’s possible survival, so as to not give false hope. The tribble had been hidden away, and there was no record of the blood’s restorative properties. McCoy didn’t doubt that Spock would find out eventually, but he had suffered enough for now and did not need the aggravation of imagining Khan torturing Jim aboard the _Vengeance_. Currently, the only factor keeping McCoy from drowning his sorrows in liquor was the constant stream of injured personnel. The entire medical staff was overworked, and even some crewmembers with basic med training were being utilized to help stem the flow.

************

Scotty didn’t bother hiding his mourning. If he had been faster, had caught on to Jim’s plan, had kept Khan subdued… his perceived list of failures scrolled in his head like the lines of coding that kept the Enterprise from falling again. _His_ fault. Jim had sacrificed himself to save the ship, but if Scotty had been able to make him listen to him at the beginning of this mess, he would still be here. His _fault_. He didn’t even have Keesner with him to yell at, not that it would help much. 

Khan’s wink was haunting his every waking moment. There had to have been a meaning, the man thought everything out. Scotty was obsessing and he knew it, but Khan was a grand chess master, planning every movement, always five steps ahead. He outplayed Spock for crying out loud, an almost unheard of feat. 

In a sleep deprived haze, Scotty remembered how Jim had managed to beat Spock once in 3D chess, somehow giving the impression that all the losses beforehand had all been a farce, learning Spock’s game. It had been incredible, and a drunk Scotty had seemed to be the only one to notice the past games’ significance. This had somehow led Scotty to investigating the Academy life of his Captain. Jim had played the entire Academy, and not actually having been there had given Scotty the distance to see what Jim had done for himself. Becoming recognized on his own merit, for his own achievements. And so subtly done that no one close enough to the radiance that was James Kirk would ever notice. The Kobiashi Maru had been the last notes of a song woven from the ambition to be better, to stand out for something other than another’s sacrifice. That it was negative was immaterial, the attention would forever be focused on what Jim could do, not in the past.

Now that Scotty thought harder about the actions of his Captain and Khan, he could not deny they had certain parallels to their actions. Neither yielding or giving quarter, and Scotty had seen a side to their Captain that few aboard the _Enterprise_ had on Delta Vega and during the run on the _Vengeance_. The determination and drive to do whatever necessary, not hesitating to put his life in danger- or threaten another- to achieve his goals. 

Before passing out from exhaustion and guilt over a console, Scotty sleepily wondered if they might actually be related in some convoluted way.

************

Nothing Sulu did seemed to break Chekhov out of his depression. There was no reaction, not to food, aggravation, or any possible motivator to move or do something. They orbited each other, in a slow dance of mourning for their lost crewmates and Captain. The light of the _Enterprise_ had been extinguished with their Captain’s abduction. Rarely seen apart, Sulu and Chekhov kept the other going through the motions of their jobs, among the most busy on the ship, navigating the treacherous docking of the damaged _Enterprise_. It was taking an incredible amount of time to make the ship worthy of reentry, giving Sulu the time to plot a course to the most capable Starfleet base for more in depth repairs.

************

Uhura was suffering with the rest of the crew, almost dying of sorrow between shifts. She wished she could push on as Spock had, staying on the clock to eliminate the time to grieve, but the _Captain_ had insisted that she left to get a checkup in the medbay. Consoling herself with the promise that she would force him to go after, she left, without the usual bounce in her step following a mission.


	3. Chapter 3

Practically the moment the Enterprise docked, the ship was swamped by reporters and media figures. Spock was outraged by the blatant disregard for the crew and break of protocol until Uhura notified him that she was unable to contact any officer higher ranking than Lieutenant. There was no longer any semblance of order in San Fransisco, with cadets scrambling to keep the peace and failing while senior officers were on mission or running away.

*************

Bones was musing to himself that it figured only cockroaches and the media fully survived an apocalypse. The structure and elegance of Starfleet was shattered, and the remains were chaos.

“Captain Spock, why do you suppose Admiral Archer hasn’t contacted us? He wasn’t on assignment during this shitstorm, he should be here.”

“I do not know, but we must assume the worst and draw the conclusion that he was involved with the machinations of Admiral Marcus and has fled with Khan’s survival. Until proven otherwise, I believe we must act as a stabilizing influence upon Starfleet. The true crisis may only be beginning.”

“Well when are we mounting a rescue for Jim?”

For the first time in Bones’ memory, Spock broke eye contact first.

“Logically, we cannot prioritize the recovery of one presumed deceased crew member over the continued stability and reconstruction of Starfleet.”

The spook looked close to breaking down, and Bones found he could not add to the burden by telling Spock his suspicion that Jim was still alive.

“However, you may help me by explaining why there is no recording of the examination of Captain Kirk’s body in the medbay.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know. I can only assume that there was a malfunction. There’s a lot of footage missing, and with that bastard piggybacking our systems, there’s no proving that he couldn’t have deleted it purposefully. Your best shot would be to ask Scotty.”

“There is no way that Captain Kirk- Jim could have survived that, is there?”

Bones sighed, and wondered if he shouldn’t tell, regardless of the pressure already on Spock. There would be no one more determined in retrieving Jim than him. But he knew it was a bad idea, and resigned himself to a solitary grieving process.

“No, I’m sorry Spock. There’s not anything in the world that could make a human come back from the dead.”


End file.
